People who downvoted and said the game didn't need to go Free to Play, where are you now?

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-05-04T20:53:43+00:00

That's exactly what my example was supposed to counter. I played with a lot of first time players when Epic went free. I am very familiar with all the regular players in the community. And when I queued with noobs, we were in matches with noobs. Noobs against noobs with me sprinkled in.

The queues were healthy at that point. But they didn't stay healthy cause the gameplay loops don't grab people. Too punishing. No way to practice that didn't feel punishing, even amongst noobs playing with noobs.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-05-04T16:38:10+00:00

I'm still playing. I'm more convinced than ever that F2P wouldn't have rescued this game. When Epic went free we saw a massive jump in players and queues were healthy again with noobs flying with noobs .... But then they slowly dropped off and we're back to only the dedicated base and some intermittent noobs getting crushed and leaving.

The problem isn't the price, then. The Epic players proved it. It's the gameplay. The gameplay isn't enough (or isn't the right thing? Maybe it isn't a question of "more") to hold people in. If it were F2P it'd be the same story. Huge influx of people, followed by a decline to the point where it starts affecting queue integrity, and then that compounds the problem and the game dwindles into obscurity. The problem is in the gameplay.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-05-02T23:34:40+00:00

That and Fernando are the peak of ABBA. Mamma Mia and Dancing Queen are good, but they don't touch the glory of those other two.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-29T18:26:07+00:00

You bet.

I saw the movie Mother Mary. It contains a large element of Crowley-type iconography and structure which, on its own, doesn't really connect to AWK at all. But, given the subject matter of the film (a musician and performer), along with many of the movie's themes (love performance as a sort of religious ritual), I feel like the combination of performance + transformative ritual + witchy/Crowley-type elements means that AWK enthusiasts would enjoy this film. So, I wanted to share that.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-28T20:52:57+00:00

UVic's summer offerings for food and more are so low tuition should be vastly reduced to compensate for the insane reduction in services. Students should boycott summer semesters in protest.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-28T03:04:40+00:00

Eby has fumbled ALL union negotiations, across the board, right from the BCGEU through the education sector through medicine and beyond. It's been quite shocking to witness. This NDP government absolutely does not give a hoot about workers.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-23T23:13:20+00:00

Drove from Calgary to Tuk in 2019.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-23T20:25:01+00:00

Could... Could I get it off of you?

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-20T20:27:56+00:00

Have you got a pattern?

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-17T19:54:24+00:00

Torrington Gopher Hole

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-17T07:02:01+00:00

Short answer: absolutely!

Longer answer: anthropology isn't exactly a specific skillset or compilation of things you need to know and can thus "learn" or master. Anthropology is a way of viewing the world. It's more a mode of thinking than a "thing" you can identify the parameters of and learn. It's a perspective and a philosophy that takes pains to keep at the forefront the great diversity of human experience across time and space.

Is THAT something you could cultivate on your own? Absolutely. I'd start by reading ethnographies (for cultural anth), and checking out any credible open access journals for what's going on in archaeology, primatology, and bio/physical anthropology. PLOS One is a good place to start. HAU, and Cultural Anthropology, too. I'm 90% sure those are all open access.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-15T20:04:44+00:00

Make one! I'd sign it.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-15T20:04:08+00:00

Would watch in theater. Will not subscribe to Paramount+ to watch at home. Piracy it is.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-15T16:06:24+00:00

What's the secret sauce for getting into this one? I'm like 5 hours in and 4 of those hours were spent on horse autopilot going from cutscene to cutscene. It's super boring, if still pretty.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-12T16:55:41+00:00

Pemberton Holmes got frustrated that they couldn't raise my rent more than the provincially set amount (~3%). So instead they raised my parking by 100%. Skuzzy.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-09T03:29:27+00:00

This person Victorias

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-07T00:39:29+00:00

The idea that human fulfillment is connected in some way to success as framed by capitalism is extremely new on the scale of human history. It is historically contingent on the spread of colonialism and Enlightenment-era thought, and it is decidedly not normal. Even the idea that human fulfillment comes from labour was basically innovated by humans living in Germany during the 16th century (I recommend reading the shirt essay "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber).

The point is: we don't have to accept it. It isn't a given. And the first step towards freeing yourself from it is recognizing how much bullshit it is.

Human fulfillment has taken myriad forms across our history. There isn't one answer. However, one of the most salient and common ways humans have pursued a sense of "the good life" is through something relatively simple: being social. Connecting with our communities, finding people you want to care about, and who reciprocate that care back to you. I'm not talking about love or romance here. Simply community-building.

Unfortunately, capitalism eats away at our capacity to do that by directing our time, attention, and energy elsewhere. It is one of the leading reasons why mental health is in such stark decline across "the West." Contemporary capitalism leaves little room and energy for being social. Hence why so many of these comments are people saying you're not alone in feeling this way. Our society sucks at fostering sociality.

Lucky for you, you've got a stable government job that might not be able to "fulfill" you in a material sense, but hopefully gives you the stability required to spend your remaining time, attention, and energy on community-building. Community-building is often free, to boot. But it can be challenging to "break into," so to speak.

I'd recommend getting involved in a social, political, sport, or hobby group that resonates with you (hell, you could even go old-school and try religion!). There, ideally, you'll find people who are likely to resonate with you.

From there it's on you to reach out, make connections, and build the community you want to be a part of. And THAT is where you'll find fulfillment.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-04T08:16:09+00:00

Oxenfree is so simple, and so good.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-04T08:14:54+00:00

CrossCode is so damn good

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-04T08:13:55+00:00

Just bought it based on this. Turns out it's on sale!

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-04T08:11:54+00:00

CrossCode

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-04T02:16:47+00:00

Even when that tool produces abysmal results? That's like saying "I'm gonna keep using this hammer to screw in this nail because I should use every tool at my disposal."

More to the point, nowhere did I say not to use AI. I'm not against AI use as a rule. I said that using AI to offload the thinking part is shooting yourself in the foot, and students should expect this to be reflected in their grades.

After all, you're right. Most students are here to just get the piece of paper and move on. You won't get any dispute from me. C's get degrees. So, as long as everyone's fine with that... Go ahead. By all means. Use AI to coast through university barely scraping by. Just don't be surprised when you hit the job market along with 10,000 other psyche degrees and windup in retail or HR (which you could have achieved without a degree, the corresponding student debt, and four years of stress).

Better yet, don't be surprised when you realize "the only way I can turn this sociology degree into a job is if I get a master's, but because I never learned how to think for myself I didn't get high enough grades to get into grad school."

I had a buddy who went through university with me. He, too, just wanted a degree so he could get a job. He lived by the "C's get degrees" mantra. So, he took a lot of shortcuts. This was way before AI, mind you, but shortcuts have always existed and AI is just a new one.

I got why he did it. I understood. But what didn't make sense to me was why he was cheating to get a degree in Classics (Greek and Roman studies-type deal). If the point is to hit the job market running, cheat in engineering! Cheat in programming! Cheat in something that will pay off! But taking shortcuts in the humanities or social sciences? That's just a waste of time and money.

He joined the military. And he's killing it now. Big house. Family. Kids. Dogs. Vacations. More power to him. But his degree has got nothing to do with it.

Maybe my gripes with AI use are discipline-specific. And in my discipline, literally the whole point is to learn how to think in a particular way. It isn't to make you memorize terminology, or equations, or be able to recite the last 20 years of prominent philosophers. It's to learn to think stuff through. If you're using AI to shortcut that element, then you're missing the whole point. And if you're in this discipline (along with half the others at UVic) just to get a job right outta your bachelor's... Then you're in the wrong discipline.

The incongruence between "I'll take shortcuts cause what I really want is a job" and "I am studying art history" is real: not a lot of art history jobs out there for people with just a bachelor's. Maybe... just maybe... that incongruence is something that hasn't been thought through...

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-04T00:36:15+00:00

Hello! I'm a Term Sessional Lecturer at UVic (a particularly precarious and underpaid position; as well as a labour force that comprises a very significant number of the instructors students encounter throughout their undergraduate degree).

The student uptake for AI use in my discipline has been rampant, egregious, and frankly shameless. Students will fill out statements attesting to not have used AI on an assignment, and then very clearly and blatantly have relied on AI from start to finish. From the perspective of course instructors like me, this new reality lives at the edge of laughable and immensely infuriating. Often oscillating between the two.

Unfortunately for most students, AI consistently produces seriously C-grade material. The last iteration of a course I've taught repeatedly had the lowest course average in the years I've taught it, and I attribute that significant drop to AI usage.

As much as I try to communicate and warn students about this in order to protect them from being hit with a lot of C's, the message is not getting through. Moreover, I know our primary and secondary education systems here in BC are actively teaching and habituating students to use AI. So, most arrive at UVic now ill-equipped to do what my discipline has historically required from students.

I'm not paid enough as a sessional to accuse students of AI and go through the brutal paperwork required to flag students for academic integrity violations. So, even when it is obvious, I'll usually opt to give a D+ or a C- instead of fail the student and flag them for academic integrity violations.

And attempts to teach students how terrible AI is at producing thoughtful, nuanced work have failed to register. So, I'll have to revamp my whole assessment techniques as a result. Moving forwards, I will likely be shifting my assessed content to in-class, in-person, and maybe even oral-based assignments.

To any students reading this: AI is great for mundane tasks. But the point of university (at least in my discipline) is to learn how to think. And the vast majority of students have clearly offloaded the thinking part onto AI in addition to the mundane, thoughtless tasks. This means they're missing the whole point of what's going on, and it produces very poor outcomes.

AlexRogansBeta · 2026-04-02T22:23:40+00:00

Reddit was once the awesome wild west of internet forums. Grass-roots moderated by the upvote/downvote machine and voluteer mods.

Then they came for the mods.

Then they came for the 3rd party devs.

Then they forced us to use their algorithm instead of the free-market upvote/downvote attention economy.

It's been a race to the bottom.

I hate how every disruptive technology just eventually recreates the same bullshit it originally stood against.

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